AdvoCharge Review

Overall Rating

Category Breakdown

Overview

AdvoCharge (advocharge.com) is a merchant account provider headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. AdvoCharge is partnered with a number of organizations in Boulder and across the country and offers a 10% discount to members of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. Founded in 2009, AdvoCharge is aligned with multiple payment processors and does not list any one acquiring bank on its website. Mark Tracy is listed as the CEO and co-founder of AdvoCharge.

Key Points

Sales & Marketing: AdvoCharge does not hire independent sales agents and has not received any complaints about its sales practices.

Costs & Contract: AdvoCharge offers a month-to-month contract with no early termination fee.

Sales & Marketing

Key Points - Sales & Marketing

Employs Independent Resellers

No

Advertises Deceptive Rates

No

Discloses All Important Terms

Yes

AdvoCharge appears to market its services through a combination of its website and partnerships with a network of clients. The company’s website actively promotes Interchange-plus pricing as the only rate structure it provides, and it even provides an explanation of tiered rate structures versus interchange. As its name indicates, AdvoCharge markets itself as an advocate for transparent sales tactics in the credit card processing industry, and the total absence of online complaints about the company’s sales team seems to suggest that it takes this claim seriously.

Phillip’s Top E-Commerce Picks

Costs & Contract

Key Points - Costs & Contract

Swiped Rate

Interchange + 0.035% + $0.035

Keyed-in Rate

Interchange + 0.035% + $0.035

Early Termination Fee

None

PCI Compliance Fee

$5 Per Month

Equipment Lease Terms

Variable

As noted above, AdvoCharge exclusively promotes interchange pricing, which is the most transparent and cheapest per-transaction pricing available. The company’s website advertises no cancellation fee, no monthly statement fee, a $5 monthly PCI Compliance fee, a flat monthly fee of $35, and a per-transaction fee of interchange plus 0.035% plus $0.035. These are very competitive contract terms, and we are unable to locate any AdvoCharge reviews that contradict the company’s advertised figures. To the contrary, there appear to be numerous positive testimonials in the comment section of this review and elsewhere online, indicating that most AdvoCharge clients are pleased with the terms of their contracts. We therefore award the company an “A” in this category.

Complaints & Service

Key Points - Complaints & Service

Total Online Complaints

<10

Live Customer Support

No

Most Common Complaint

N/A

As of this review, we are unable to locate any complaints about AdvoCharge that accuse the company of being a scam or a ripoff. In fact, nearly all publicly available AdvoCharge reviews praise the company’s customer service and cite its agents’ availability as a major perk. Most of these positive reviews were verified to have been written by actual business owners. Despite the company’s short time in business, this is a highly impressive complaint record. One drawback of AdvoCharge’s service is that it requires merchants to use email as the first form of customer service contact, but the company is willing to place calls at later stages of service if required. This practice has not generated any complaints as of this review.

BBB

Key Points - BBB

Product & Service Complaints

0

Billing & Collection Complaints

0

Advertising & Sales Complaints

0

Guarantee & Warranty Complaints

0

Delivery Complaints

0

AdvoCharge is not an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau. As of this review, the company has an “A+“ rating with the BBB and has had zero complaints filed against it in the last 36 months. AdvoCharge is also not showing any informal reviews on its BBB profile, although it should be noted that customer reviews through the BBB are not subject to verification. In light of AdvoCharge’s clean complaint record through the BBB, we agree with the BBB’s rating.

Response from AdvoCharge

AdvoCharge Bottom Line

By all available indicators, AdvoCharge rates as an exemplary merchant account provider. The company appears to place a premium on transparent sales tactics and pricing, and multiple online reviews praise its customer service. Even when dealing with highly rated credit card processors, merchants are advised to carefully examine the terms of any contract they are given.

About Phillip Parker

Hi, I’m Phillip and I’m disgusted by the state of credit card processing in the U.S. and abroad. I believe that the industry has been overrun by people who engage in fraud and deception in order to steal money from hard working business owners. I’ve made it my mission to expose the companies and individuals who engage in predatory marketing, pricing, and contracts, or just provide terrible service. Along with uncovering the bad guys, I’ve also discovered the good guys who do stand out from the status quo. CPO is a website where you will find ratings and reviews of these companies along with advice on how to save money and which service providers consider. Together we can move the industry in a positive direction. If you would like to help support my work, please checkout “Fee Sweep” my eGuide to getting the lowest possible fees when accepting card payments. If you haven’t heard of “interchange” this advice will save you hundreds, even thousands, in processing fees.

Phillip’s Merchant Account Rate and Fee Savings Guide

Copyright & Disclaimer

Any unauthorized copying and reproduction of the content of this page, including all meta data and computer code, is strictly prohibited. While the information in the above article is believed to be accurate as of its publish date, the author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of this material, which is provided “as is,” and without warranties. Any and all use of trade names and/or marks are for identification purposes only and shall not be construed as a claim of affiliation, or otherwise, with CardPaymentOptions.com, Inc. ("CPO") in any form. The sole purpose of the material presented herein is to alert, educate, and inform readers. It is not intended as legal or financial advice.

11 ReviewsLeave Your Review Below

As a restaurant owner for the past 19 years I have gone through several credit card processors without much satisfaction and much frustration. For the past year I have been processing with Advocharge and am totally satisfied. Their transparency is refreshing, the fees are manageable and as quoted and they are available to answer questions. They understand the merchants perspective and are very sensitive to that. I have recommended Advocharge to other businesses and will continue to do so.

We have been extremely happy with Advocharge. Our processing costs are less, which helps us as a small business, and the customer service we receive is second to none. I confidently decline offers from the other companies that call weekly, promising lower rates. I highly recommend Advocharge.

Since we switched to AdvoCharge, credit card processing has been painless. If we have any questions or needs they are taken care of quickly and professionally; it’s SO much better to have a local representative!

Making the jump to take Credit Card for our small growing business was scary . Advo Charge made it easy and has help with all of our needs as we grow. We had compared rates and we have the best deal by far !! We have converted many other business to Advo Charge once we tell them about the personal service and rates ! Thank you Advo Charge for all you do for us !!!

We switched our business over to Advocharge in February. We’d been with our prior processor for over 5 years. During those 5 years we were repeatedly contacted by merchant processors who told us how much money they’d save us, but when we dug deep, we weren’t comfortable with something about the way they did business. Either we didn’t believe their rate structure was real, or their customer service was problematic, or they had a lot of complaints. It took a lot for us to switch.

And I’m glad we did. Our overall effective rate including all fees dropped by an average of 20-30%, which is saving us hundreds of dollars each month. The customer service has been superb and the processing has been flawless. We actually see our charges deposited a day faster than our prior processor, and the online reporting tools are excellent as well.

I would highly recommend these guys. We literally have zero complaints and are very glad we made the switch.

Provider of the Month

Why Fattmerchant: This provider has one of the most competitive pricing plans of any merchant account provider in the card processing industry. Fattmerchant also offers a month-to-month service agreement, no cancellation fees, no hidden fees, and processing options for virtually any business need. Add to all of this easy-to-use technology and top-rated customer support, and you can’t go wrong with this choice.

Exposing The Truth

Hi, I’m Phillip and I’m disgusted by the state of credit card processing industry. I believe that it has been overrun by people who engage in fraud and deception in order to steal from hard working business owners. I’ve made it my mission to expose the companies and individuals who engage in predatory marketing, pricing, and contracts. You shouldn’t have to worry about paying inflated fees or getting trapped in expensive contracts when you are simply trying to take payments from your customers.

Phillip Parker Founder & Critic

P.S. If you would like to help support my work, please checkout “Fee Sweep” my eGuide to getting the lowest possible fees when accepting card payments. If you haven’t heard of “interchange” this advice will save you hundreds, even thousands, in fees.